A view of the CSW mixed-use apartment and retail concept for this site, rising five floors near the corner of Far West Boulevard and Wood Hollow Drive. Image: CSW Development / STG Design
A permit application is now pending with the City of Austin for the demolition of the 13,000-square-foot former Frost Bank at 3525 Far West Boulevard, a roughly four-acre tract located at the southeast corner of Far West Boulevard and Wood Hollow Drive. The removal of the existing vacant building at the property will prepare the site for a new five-story apartment and retail project planned by Austin-based real estate firm CSW Development, which purchased the bank property in 2021 after its previous owners secured a vertical mixed-use rezoning in 2020.
The expected timeline for this new project’s construction is unclear, with the latest site plan filings for the building by CSW dating back to last month. The planned apartment building would contain approximately 320 units, with the developer’s participation in the vertical mixed-use density bonus program making 10 percent or 32 of those units income-restricted affordable housing for tenants earning 80 percent or less of the region’s Median Family Income, which in 2023 was $65,450 or less for an individual. The building’s local design team includes civil engineers TDI Engineering, architects STG Design, and landscape architecture firm Ecoland Design Group.
An aerial view of the site and its surroundings, which are often of the parking lot variety. Image: CSW Development
The building will offer some of the highest end amenities offered in the market including but not limited to, a resort-style pool, coffee bar, and co-working spaces, a clubroom, a dog washroom, and a fully equipped fitness room.
— CSW Development
A view of the project’s frontage on Wood Hollow Drive, with some very descriptive placeholder restaurant names marking its 6,000 square feet of street-level retail. Image: CSW Development / STG Design
Another rendering of the building’s frontage, which boldly imagines what the neighborhood would be like if pedestrians had things to walk to there. Image: CSW Development / STG Design
Although it’s needless to say if you’re familiar with the neighborhood, the CSW plan is an uncommon project for this part of Austin. The majority of apartments in the surrounding Northwest Hills area predate the 1980s land development code rewrite that restricted multifamily development across many neighborhoods, and contemporary vertical mixed-use buildings are simply not the norm in this area — well, at least not yet. With 6,000 square feet of ground-level, street-facing retail planned in the new building, we’re thinking this project won’t be the last to see the potential in the district’s numerous aging commercial tracts and parking lots.
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